It's Hammer Time

& Alien Nation Feedback

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

As readers of www.hammerfilms.com know, the illustrious British horror studio has started a CD series of its soundtracks. But, they've made it really hard to get the damn things. Fear not in the U.S., because Scarlet Street magazine is importing these new babies. Here's the info:

Count Dracula! Baron Frankenstein! Megaera the Gorgon! Kharis the Living Mummy! Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed! Jack the Ripper! All your favorite Gals and Ghouls are back again, in one monstrously entertaining compact disc: THE HAMMER FILM MUSIC COLLECTION: VOLUME ONE.

Aren't press releases great when they scream things like this up front? Sorry, back to the show:

In 1957, Hammer Films, a small motion picture production company in England, produced THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the first telling of Mary Shelley's immortal novel in full, blood-drenched color. The following year produced HORROR OF DRACULA, putting the company firmly on the monster map and making international stars of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Dozens of Gothic thrillers followed, many with Cushing and Lee, and all with the signature color and music that defined Hammer Horror. And now that stirring music is available on compact disc from another horror icon: Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror

Scarlet Street is proud to announce its partnership with producer Gary Wilson to exclusively distribute this dynamic disc of original soundtrack recordings to the United States. Make no mistake: THE HAMMER FILM MUSIC COLLECTION: VOLUME ONE features the long-awaited actual recordings from the Hammer Films archives, restored and digitally remastered to modern-day specifications for the fiendishly finest in listening pleasure.

THE HAMMER FILM MUSIC COLLECTION: VOLUME ONE is a veritable medley of Hammer's Greatest Hits: 25 cues from such legendary fright films as THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, TWINS OF EVIL, THE MUMMY, CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER, HORROR OF DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, THE GORGON, KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, SCARS OF DRACULA, HANDS OF THE RIPPER, CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB, DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE, SHE, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, and more!

And if you think the contents are great, the packaging lives up to it, with a special introduction by Hammer Films production chairman Roy Skeggs, detailed liner notes by Marcus Hearn, and over two dozen photos (many in full color) from your favorite monster movies. The CD is dedicated to the memory of longtime Hammer music supervisor Philip Martell, of whom Skeggs writes: "Phil was little short of a genius, and knew immediately after viewing a rough cut the music, mood, and composer we should hire for each piece. He worked with composers improving scores and conducting orchestras in some 400 music sessions for Hammer."

THE HAMMER FILM MUSIC COLLECTION: VOLUME ONE is obtainable in the United States only from Scarlet Street Inc., at the wholesale price of $22 per disc.

Scarlet Street can be reached at PO Box 604, Glen Rock NJ 07452; Phone: 201-445-0034. Fax: 201-445-1496. E-mail: reditor@aol.com. And again, the website for Hammer is www.hammerfilms.com.

More on this movie and TV show, as written about last week:

From: Josh Gizelt <Josh.Gizelt@gte.net>

Rather than concentrating on the standard buddy-movie cliches or the cop-show nonsense that the movie did, the series "Alien Nation" actually explored the possibilities of another minority assimilating into our society. At times, it looked at Los Angeles as being more wierd than the pragmatic, if sensual, newcomers. Furthermore, by concentrating on the aliens' conflict between the pressures to assimilate versus the desire to maintain their own culture, the show gave its composers many opportunities to create interesting music.

The scores for the "Alien Nation" series are brilliant; they convincingly create an "otherworldly" feel through odd instrumentation and a choir singing in the alien language, Tectonese. Yet, this "otherworldliness" is of a piece, painting a picture of a complex yet interesting society that we people barely know about. What is interesting is that this is very much the work of producer Kenneth ("V") Johnson, as the pilot, scored by Joe ("The Incredible Hulk") Harnell is written in a very similar (if darker) style as the later scores by Steve Dorff, Larry Herbstritt and David Kurtz.

A well chosen CD of re-recordings from this series is available on GNP Crescendo; wasn't there supposed to be another release a little while back with some of the music from the telefilms?

There was, but it never happened. I just want to restate my affection for that short-lived TV show, which I watched regularly on Fox on Monday nights back when it aired around 1990. I was happy when the CD came out but never listen to it much... inside the episodes, however, the scores were really creative and a big part of the series' atmosphere, emphasizing the alien culture. That's it. Great show, now airing on the Sci-Fi channel, all 20 or so episodes.

From: Timothy Kurkoski <kurkoskt@OIT.EDU>

Regarding today's article by Jason Foster about the Alien Nation score, I want to express my opinion that it was not well written, as exampled by the following exerpt:

"ALIEN NATION remains a stupid movie using a formula that we've all seen before."

All right, so that is his opinion. I recognize that. However, I take offense at calling a film 'stupid' without backing it up with any criticism or comment. I've never seen the film, so I can't comment on it myself, but I certainly don't think that I have seen the supposed 'formula' that he is talking about. I have seen a few cop/buddy pics, but not many. Although I can acknowledge that certain formula style flicks have been common in the recent decades, how can I be sure of what kind of formula Foster is talking about? He makes note of the character played by James Caan as a 'standard... character cop' and some of Sobel's score as 'city-pop'. While these give me clues as to what he means, Foster still has not clearly communicated what he means by 'formula' and 'stupid'.

It is hard to evaluate a review of a film score without some sort of context (ie, the story to which is was composed) to reference the description of the music to. A badly written reference is no better. A poorly written article like this is not only frustrating and tiresome to read, but reflects badly on the image of Film Score Monthly and its staff.

We get a letter like this from time to time, and here is my stock response: Yes, of course it is "bad criticism" just to dismiss something as "stupid" without further explanation. My rationalization is simply this: most good criticism must presume a certain intelligence and body of knowledge in the audience. If you're busy reading and being interested by an article about an unused Jerry Goldsmith score, and know anything about the Alien Nation movie (which is lame), I don't think you need a refresher course on the movie's shortcomings.

So yes, we could have provided a more thorough analysis of this movie--and probably should have--but we're all nerds here. We know stuff.

Oh well, I'd hate to think of what we might have to establish if we ever discuss, say, Players...

Have a nice day, everybody.

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